Online meetings lead to funny blunders
Slip-ups bring out light moments as work, school go virtual
Technology is not for the faint of heart.
And despite the internet aiming to make working, schooling, or even connecting with family and friends during the pandemic much easier thanks to video conferencing apps like Zoom, while some thrive, others are struggling – with hilarious results.
Jennifer Huston’s sevenyear-old daughter, Abigael, prepared for her online
Grade 2 class like she did every morning in Pugwash, but something was not right when her teacher signed in and unmuted her microphone for the lesson.
“No one could understand the teacher,” says Huston, who tried not to crack into laughter while watching quietly out-of-sight in the background.
“Some kids began to giggle. ...”
The teacher inadvertently clicked on a filter that made her voice resemble the sounds of a chipmunk.
“The principal joined the class to figure out how to turn off the filtered sound that came with every word. But the teacher, determined, kept the class going (well, she tried) for about 20 minutes before realizing that no one could understand what she was saying,” laughs Huston.
“Eventually, she had everyone log off and rejoin the meeting.”
Huston notes, “Ironically, the (students) were working on their language arts.”
FUNNY MOMENTS
Jacquelyn Foreman from Argyle Shore in P.E.I. can relate to the online challenges from home.
Her nine-year-old daughter, Paisley, was in a virtual class when her father interrupted the lesson.
“It was a Google (Englewood school) meet, and my daughter was talking. My husband thought the class was over and that she was chatting with friends, so he casually strolled past and said, ‘Hey, Paisley, want me to show your classmates my sweet dance moves?” shares Foreman.
“Without missing a beat, her teacher replied, ‘Sure Ben, we’d love to see them.”
While interruptions can be embarrassing at the time, they can can provide relief during stressful or intense situations, and that’s what makes them precious and funny, says Jess Robinson from Meteghan.
Robinson was in an online work meeting when her husband strolled past during an intense moment, cutting off the project manager in mid-sentence while blasting a Canadian “mockumentary” television series.
“He had the Trailer Park Boys on, and he was unaware I was still in a meeting and that the microphone was on,” shares Robinson, who has worked from home since April 2021.
“My project manager stopped, leaned in, and said, ‘Wait, is that Ricky and Bubbles?’ At first, I felt mortified because six employees were in the Zoom meeting. Also, the project manager is new. But when I saw their reactions, it broke all the tension.”
She adds, “My husband didn’t even realize what happened because he was so fully engaged and laughing so hard at the show. After the meeting, I told him of what happened, and he shrugged it off and said, ‘Oh, sorry, that’s my bad.'”
MUTE THE MIC
However rough a learning or work-from-home experience has been, it could always be worse, as Vic Burton, from Fermeuse, N.L., shares.
The incident happened in March 2021, when many were still grasping the concepts of virtual meetings.
“Unfortunately, my ex’s mother passed away, and it was a virtual funeral,” he explains.
Because of public health and safety measures, along with travel restrictions, only a few were at the Ontario service in-person, while the rest (around 24 attendees) joined online. As a result, Burton says there was no visual of those on the Zoom call and muted microphones. That is, all except one.
“As the funeral unfolded, the sound effects started. It sounded like the dramatic Star Wars soundtrack. There was no dialogue, but flying asteroids, the firing of missiles, explosions galore in the background.”
Messages from the other Zoom attendees quickly began to fill the screens asking the attendee, a distant young relative, to mute their microphone.
“They were most likely there out of obligation by a parent and watching the movie and not the screen,” says Burton. “Because their microphone stayed on.”
All microphones switched on with a crescendo of chaos as attendees attempted to catch the person’s attention and mute their microphone.
But the person could not hear over the movie, so those on the other end of the Zoom call started to yell even louder, says Burton.
“It got so loud. Then attendees were yelling to the funeral director to cut the microphone. Then the director cut the sound to the funeral. It was absolute mayhem. But I can imagine my former mother-in-law would have died laughing – if she had not already been dead,” he says.
Burton says his former mother-in-law was known for her “love of jokes," adding, “Her husband had also been into sci-fi.”
Luckily, the family gathered in person at the event couldn’t hear any of the mayhem unfolding.
“At first, it was the feeling of horror at this happening, but then it turned instantly into a comedy. The longer the sound effects and loud Star Wars-like music went on, the more absurd it became, and you could not help but find the humour,” says Burton.
“It will always be a story to tell. Some relatives found it less than funny, but my former mother-in-law would have laughed. It would have been one of her favourite stories.”